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Published: January 23rd 2008
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Hello all,
Thanks to the help of many of you, Bram and I finally made it over the pond and began our European vacation. The flight across the Atlantic (Amy's first) was a little arduous. We flew to Toronto waited a couple hours, watched a little football, had a bite to eat and then spent the night on a flight to Frankfurt. We arrived in Frankfurt at around 8 AM local time. The travel agent gave us a layover in Frankfurt to ensure that we had enough time to re check our bags and clear customs before making our connection to Lisbon. Unfortunatley, it took about 30 seconds to go through customs, and less than that to check in with Luftansa. So, we were left with 5 hours to chill out in the Frankfurt airport. The airport was sorta like the people a little bit cold and not that much fun. We found the most comfortable bench we could and stayed horizontal for most of the wait. The flight to Lisbon was quick and painless, despite the class of boistrous Aussie 14 year olds sitting next to us.
We finally arrived in the late afternoon and were greeted with
Our first tram ride
Lisbon has these old wooden street cars that are not very reliable but they sure are quaint. palm trees, sunshine, and a 3 euro ride right to our hostel! We snuggled into our hostel room and slept until the morning. We spent our first day in Lisbon on a walking tour of the old center of town with a charming local university student. The next day we decided to leave the overpriced youth hostel and found a charming private guesthouse with river views. After settling in we took sight seeing into our own hands and visited an area of town called Belem which encompasses several amazing monuments and museums. We had planned that night to go see a Fado performance, a sort of Portuguese Blues music style, but the jet lag hadn't left us yet and our nap before our reservation became a more permanent slumber.
Despite missing the cultural experience we decided to take on our first train adventure the next morning. We travelled north to Porto which is the second largest city in Portugal and as the name would suggest the home of Port wine. We stayed in a charming cheap hotel right on the central square and had a sound sleep. The next day we explored the charming city and took a boat
The explorers monument
This massive monument sits on the shores of Lisbon's harbour. cruise down the Douro river. It was nice to get out on the water, put our feet up, and let the sights pass us by. That night we decided after several lame early nights working off the jetlag we would go out. We went to this charming restaurant just off the central square where there was a Salsa band playing. It is interesting to see the cultural exchange between Brazil and Portugal, because the former colony is so much larger in population, there is more Brazilian culture coming from there to here than the other way around. Great music coffee and cheap wine were the elements we appreciated most. We mowed down a huge steak and a bottle of local red wine and floated back down the windy cobble stone streets to our little room. We enjoyed Porto but we were itching to get out of the city and head south to the sunny coast of the Algarve. We cut the trip in half and bunked one night in Lisbon on the way but used the night to enjoy a home cooked meal (spaghetti with chorizo sausage) and recharge our batteries.
The trip south was long but enjoyable winding
through the rolling hills of the Portuguese landscape. We managed to make our transfer by listening very accutely to the Portuguese announcer and headed to the town of Lagos. On the way we were burdened briefly by some local youth on the train who were really just trying to spook us. They succeeded, but we were taken under the wing of some friendly old Brits, the hooligans were kicked off the train, and we arrived at our destination with only our confidence slightly bruised.
Lagos is a lovely town on the southern coast. We found a lovely guest house run by a local woman named Dina. We are sharing it with one other couple. They are cute and French and just a bit older than us. The town is filled with travellers, unfourtunately the average age of traveller is about 58. The big attraction to this town is the nearby beaches that attract surfers from far and wide. With it being off season the British retirees out number the surfers but it leaves the beaches pristine and uncrowded. Lagos is filled with cute shops and restaurants and has a very relaxed attitude. Between the surfers and the retirees, no
A beautiful day in Sagres
I got sunburned this day...and was very happy about it. one is going anywhere quickly. Its exactly the atmosphere we needed after some busy days in the cities.
Today we ventured out to the town of Sagres which is a 40 minute bus ride west from here. We were near to the most south western point of continental Europe and you could really see this being considered the end of the world. We spent most of the day on the beautiful beach splashing in the Atlantic and hiking around the old fortress high up on the cliffs.
We plan to spend a couple more nights here in the Algarve region and then we're going to blast East into Spain, spending a few nights in Seville and then down to Cadiz and Gibraltor. Looking forward to our first glimpse of the Med.
Love you all,
Amy and Bram
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Kristen
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Aw you guys look like your having a blast! Love the blog! Keep on posting..we miss you! Lots of love, kristen